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Rootwork Radio

by: Rootwork Collective

Usage: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

Topics: Internet Radio, Independent Music, Underground Music, Industrial, Underground, Industrial Music, Breaks, Breakbeat, Electronic Music, DIY, Punk, Noise, Hip Hop, Music Collective, Independent, Unsigned Music, Radio, Punk

Rootwork Radio is the weekly radio show featuring the music of the Rootwork Collective: an international family of musicians spanning genres as diverse as Metal, Hip Hop, Industrial, IDM/Experimental, Ambient, and many more.

When I began broadcasting Rootwork Radio sometime 5+ years ago, it was just a sporadic idea with no long term ambitions. The Rootwork Collective had been founded just two years previously by a group of likeminded musicians working towards creating a "virtual scene," one which transcended our disparate locations by utilizing the internet and other forms of mass communication. However, the Collective had a slow start in finding its focus, and after a while had started to lose its cohesion. Old members left, music stopped being shared around as frequently...the Collective seemed destined to end as a failed experiment.

Yet Rootwork, as it would show time and time again, maintained the spirit of resilience. Rootwork member and Montfort Music boss Felix Sauermoser introduced me to the format of live broadcasting via online radio. After getting the Collective set up with its own station, I attempted to create a weekly broadcast of Rootwork Collective members' music. This weekly digest allowed Rootwork Members both new and old to keep track of what everyone was up to musically, and also led to a weekly chatroom style posting where members could socialize as they all listened in.

The original episodes, for the first year or so, all were prerecorded and then replayed live via the broadcaster. After a while, time constraints and general laziness moved the format over to direct live broadcasts hosted in real time. Eventually, the format changed again to DJ set style mixes where it currently remains. I have always been and will always be a terrible host...there are lots of errors, unintelligible mumblings and other things in each broadcast which would disqualify me from any job at a radio station. Still, it was always about the music, and even through weeks where I was broadcasting to only two people, it was still always worth it to hear the sounds of my musical family merging into one: The Rootwork Sound

Now every Sunday brings a ton of people to listen in and enter the chat. The broadcasts are still very much a family affair; they are not advertised openly and most people listening in are only separated by a few degrees of social interactions. Nevertheless our family continues to grow and people listening in continue to be impressed by the wide range of sounds and cultures represented in the broadcasts. It is without a doubt that Rootwork Radio is here to stay!

And so with that in mind, for posterity or just for our own enjoyment (as it has always been), I have uploaded as many of the old episodes as I can find for anyone who wishes to enjoy. Hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we all do! - S.C.

Rootwork Radio is still broadcast on www.mixlr.com/thecommons every Sunday at 12:00 PM (Pacific/US), 2:00 PM (Central US), 3:00 PM (East/US), 4:00 PM (Bolivia [we hope]), 8:00 PM (UK), 21:00 (CET), 22:00 (Finland), Midnight/0:00 (Dubai)